November 2007

Pack Your Purse with COOPERATION

Feature: "Working Together"
Ask the women to bring their daughters to the Alliance Women meeting for a "Holiday Craft Night". Encourage those who do not have young daughters to invite one of the girls from the junior or senior high youth groups to be their guest. Prepare three crafts that you can teach—one for Thanksgiving, one for Christmas, and one for New Year’s — or bring in a special guest who can teach a craft. You can find many easy craft ideas on the internet or in holiday magazines. Have the woman and their young guests work together in pairs to help one another make the craft projects. This is a wonderful opportunity to give the older women and younger women some time together, and it also helps to introduce the girls to Alliance Women Ministries.

Outreach Idea:
If your town has a soup kitchen or shelter, volunteer to help. Your group could go as a large unit or divide into teams and rotate when you help. If you can't give the time, find out if there are supplies they need that you could help with.

Prayer Tip:
Remember ACTS!

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

Please do not just make supplications to God in Jesus' name. Include the other three also! It would be good to always include adoration and thanksgiving first. Psalm 107:43
"Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord."

Discipleship Thought:
We should not stop where we are when we found Jesus Christ. We must also find others and introduce them to Christ. John 1:41-42 says, "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah' (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus."

Good to Go in Macedonia

"MINISTRY or DOING WHAT WE LOVE TO DO...CAN WE DO BOTH?"

By Becky Mindek
One of the things I have realized about myself is that I need to keep myself happy in the ministry I am involved in. That may sound selfish, but I believe that too many times as women, we try to force ourselves into a ministry out of "responsibility" rather than a true "desire" to minister.

Have you ever said that you can’t do a ministry in the church because you were not "qualified"? Is that because we are trying to fit our gifts and strengths into a packaged ministry? Wouldn’t it be better for us to find out what strengths and desires for ministry are present in our hearts, and then find an avenue of ministry where we can use those natural gifts? This doesn’t mean we don’t need to stretch ourselves sometimes and do something we aren’t comfortable with, but it does mean making sure we have a ministry that we enjoy so that we are ministering with a joyful heart and for the right reasons.

When I thought of being a missionary as a young 20 year old, I never thought I would be using what I love to do to minister to the women of Macedonia. In my young ignorance, I guess I thought I had to "suffer for Jesus" in order to be a missionary in ministry. I pictured myself in a hut with stacks of language books-- translating Sunday school material for hours a day. Or, in the front of a large evangelistic gathering-- nervously speaking huge theological sermons to hundreds of people seated on benches.

Now, 20 years later, God has shown me how to use my natural skills to minister to the Macedonians. Because I realized quickly that I was a better English teacher than language learner, I began English classes at our new church in order to reach out to the Macedonians in our city. The idea was to get people inside our church doors for English class in order to show them that our faith was not a cult. Then I began doing something that I have always loved to do - and which came natural - having dessert and coffee at our home and inviting my students to come for an informal time of fellowship. In a culture that is very relational, and where coffee with friends is an everyday event, this opened doors for friendship that would have never happened had I forced myself into the "expected" form of ministry. Using my natural skill and heart’s desire to teach English has resulted in God leading four of my English students to come to our weekly women's Bible Study at church. Those women would never have been reached if I had waited for my Macedonian language to be where I expected it to be in order to minister. Or if I had held large evangelistic meetings at the church! I would still be behind my pile of books, inside my home, studying the language and never going outside to reach the people!

What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a gift that you may never have? Why not find the natural gift God has given you and use it to reach your friends, and maybe to make new ones? And better yet, to fulfill the Great Commission!

Our ministries as women should be "organized and focused", fitting into the direction and purpose of the church, but they do not need to be "boxed and rehearsed", done only out of obligation. If we are ministering because of a desire to use the gift we have, our ministry will come naturally and flourish. If we are ministering because of a duty to "fill an empty position or program", that ministry will be forced and eventually fade out.

I encourage us all as women to find our heart’s desire to minister. Don't wait to be asked to do something that you really don’t have a desire to do. Step up to the plate and search your heart for the natural qualities that you enjoy (maybe organizing a coffee time, teaching crafts to kids after school with moms present, talking one on one to hurting women, planning outings for the lonely, shopping for shut-ins, being involved in behind the scenes work like organization, cooking, phone calls, etc.) and then talk to your pastor about where you can use that natural gift in your church.

Then you will not only be "good to go" for ministry...but you will also "go for good!"...never burning out because your natural desire and love for your ministry will keep you going...going for good...going for GOD.